Plutarch
Parallel Lives, Moralia
The great biographer of antiquity. The Parallel Lives — 23 paired biographies of Greek and Roman statesmen — shaped how the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and Shakespeare understood the ancient world. Montaigne called him his bedside book; Shakespeare's Roman plays are dramatized Plutarch. The Moralia is a treasury of essays on everything from the education of children to the intelligence of animals.
Key works
- Parallel Lives~100-120— 23 paired Greek and Roman lives — Shakespeare's source for Rome
- Moralia~100-120— 78 essays on ethics, education, philosophy, and curiosity